This project focusses on the relationship between nature in cities and the values conveyed by local communities in Faro, Portugal. With economic and health crises leading to increased stress and depression, society has begun paying more attention to mental and physical health, and the role of nature in cities has become increasingly important. The neighborhood of Estação in Faro is an area that directly borders the Ria Formosa Natural Park, making it an ideal location to study the values that green areas in cities convey to local communities. To understand the relationship between nature and people, this research used participatory research methods. The aim was to reveal the interests and perspectives of different stakeholders regarding the cultural significance of places, by assessing the values held by different generations. Two theoretical frameworks were used to code the cultural significance of nature. Cultural significance is defined by two concepts: values and attributes. The values refer to why something is important, while attributes refer to the quality or characteristic that someone or something has. The varied categories of attributes are divided into tangible attributes (asset, area, and all) and intangible attributes (product, societal, process).

The research aimed to gather information about all age groups with the most suitable participatory gaming methods. A card game was developed to understand the values of both children and elderly. The game is set around proposal cards that contain actions to take regarding the city of Faro, based on nature-based solutions (NBS) from the Urbinat catalogue. The proposals are completed with other actions that might want to be explored further in the design phase. Each proposal has been classified according to the values/attribute framework. The results of the research indicated that nature in cities is valued by local communities for a range of reasons. The highest results that emerged from the research where the economic, social and ecological values. The research also identified different attributes associated with these values, such as a sense of place, physical characteristics, cultural heritage, and ecological functions. Overall, this research has highlighted the importance of understanding the cultural significance of nature in cities for different generations.

The research was used for a values-based redesign of a vacant industrial site. The project has four main goals: rehabilitation, cohabitation, intergenerational interaction, and community ownership. The first goal aims to protect the historic and cultural significance of the site by limiting interventions to minor impacts. The second goal focuses on the relation between people and nature, highlighting the potential for nature to increase well-being and create enjoyable spaces. The third goal focuses on the relationship between people of different ages, emphasizing the mutual benefits of intergenerational interactions. The fourth goal emphasizes the importance of community involvement in the creation and maintenance of the project. Proposed functions for the building include workshop spaces, gardens, bars/restaurants, workspaces, clubs, and exhibition spaces. The proposed design aligns with social, ecological, and economic values. Based on the research the design received positive responses from both age groups.

This graduation project is the heritage design of an abandoned factory in the Estação neighborhood, Faro, Portugal. The aim of MSc3 Graduation Studio: Revitalising Heritage is to develop and test values-based models for redesigning built heritage. There are three main phases: cultural significance survey, values-based redesign, and heritage impact assessment. This project applied cultural mapping, decision-making participation, and impact assessment methods to fulfill the value-based redesign and improve residents' place attachment. The design proposal is making use of the outdoor space with nature to support people’s interaction and leisure activity without harming the calm atmosphere and the elderly’s sense of ownership.

The role of nature in historic cities has been a growing debate in creating healthier environments as society pays more attention to mental and physical health. The relationship between nature, city, and community is growing in understanding but is still limited in practice. Recent research evidence that the high cultural significance of green places, where people like to spend time, positively impacts their well-being. Moreover, the community's well-being was proven to be connected to the presence of nature because of the strong emotional attachment to the greenery in historic cities.
This thesis focuses on the neighborhood Estação in Faro, Algarve, Portugal, which historically was an agricultural area but nowadays contains only a few green spaces and lacks connection with the Ria Formosa National Park (lagoon). Assumingly, these natural elements primarily convey, e.g., aesthetical and ecological values but may also bring a broader cultural significance to the community of Faro.
Participatory methods, in particular gaming, are used to reveal the values of the community. Gaming is a participatory method that enables co-creation in representing, visualizing, and redesigning architecture and the urban landscape. Both sides can learn by engaging the local community. The method supports raising awareness about values and considering them in the redesign process.

This graduation project explores emotional attachment toward nature in the city of Faro, Portugal. A photographic walking tour had been used as a participatory method to identify values and attributes that are related to the community’s emotional attachment. The research resulted in a values-based redesign of two former warehouses at the waterfront of the Ria Formosa Natural Park. The redesign aims to attract the younger generation to the plot and acts as a catalyst for more urban development in this high-potential area and eventually reduces the large vacancy.

The emic structure of space heavily depends on the social, cultural, and economic context (Hillier, 1989). Yet, many social housing projects disregard this crucial aspect by standardizing the configuration of space (Sanoff, 2000). To be able to avoid the standardization of configuration and benefit from the cost-efficiency of mass production (Pine, 1993, Tseng, 2007), we propose a serious game that utilizes participatory design and gamification to facilitate co-creation and enable people to re-enforce their social and cultural preferences in the configuration of the spaces while benefiting from the economic viability of a mass-produced kit-of-parts. The proposed construction game is a mix of board game with Lego pieces. Each Lego piece have different possible dimension depending on the function which is being represented. The gameboard represents the plot on which the housing will be implemented. During the Planning phase of the game the players will use those components to generate a draft configuration that translates their preferences and requirements. Later in the Configuration stage, the game mechanisms are introduced to engage the players to communicate and discuss their ideas, make trades and commitments between them. The proposed configuration comprises fully modular pieces, so it could be easily manufactured and replicated. A test case base is conducted to further analyse on how effective the game has been in facilitating the participation in housing configuration, without the obstacle of technical knowledge of the architectural design and construction.